NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2009 15
Highest authority
THE CO of HMS Victory climbed
straight into the record books when he
demonstrated his head for heights.
Lt Cdr Oscar Whild clambered 205ft up
the man o’ war’s main mast, and is believed
● Capt Brown and Gp Capt Al
Monkman at the Offi cers’ Mess
to be the first captain of the flagship to have
ever scaled the mast to check the rigging and
general condition of the ship’s fittings.
● Nick Carter
Winkle
Back when the ship was a working vessel,
inspections would only have been carried out
End of a
by the crew rather than risk their captain.
returns
Yet despite the chilly autumn weather Lt
Cdr Whild took just ten minutes to reach
62-year
the top, where he demonstrated the utility
of new ropes and equipment provided by
to base
Bell Rigging.
career
“It was good to see the mast up close,”
he said. “There is an awful lot of rigging
RENOWNED test pilot and RN up there which looks complicated from the
A CAREER lasting 25 years in the
veteran Capt Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown ground, but from the top you can see how it
Navy is generally not a bad tally.
made his return visit to the station all fits together.”
But in the case of Roland
he used to command. In recent years inspections have been
Carter, known as Nick, he wasn’t
Capt Brown, who holds the carried out from the platform of a cherry
even close to the half-way point.
record for the most types of aircraft
Nick finally retired this autumn
picker which didn’t allow for complete
flown and the most aircraft carrier
after 62 years in and working for
access to the ropes or fittings, and required
landings, was VIP guest of honour
the Navy.
large areas of the deck to be cordoned off.
at the RAF Lossiemouth officers’
He turned 18 in early 1945 but
The fitting of new abseiling ropes to
mess Battle of Britain dinner.
as a fireman on GWR locos he was
Victory will allow the ship to open much
The aviator was in charge of the
excused active service as he was
larger areas of the upper deck during routine
station between September 1967
in a reserved occupation – though
maintenance.
to March 1970 – when it was a
he was often on the footplate of
Despite the captain’s enthusiasm, future
Royal Naval air station – and took
ammunition trains.
inspections will be carried out by climbers
the chance to look over the last 70
He joined up as a Probationary
from Bell Rigging in conjunction with the
years of station history.
Writer at HMS Raleigh in 1947,
naval base’s partners BVT Surface Fleet. ● Lt Cdr Whild scales HMS Victory’s main mast
Picture: Bell Rigging
He also spoke to station
and took his love of competitive
personnel about his exploits
cycling into the Navy with him.
– from some of the Luftwaffe
On leaving the Navy after 25
aircraft he flew in the latter part
Liverpool picks up a (plastic) penguin years, Nick took a part-time job
of World War 2 to some of the
as manager of the Dame Elisabeth
YOU can never have too many in Liverpool last month and runs
Nazi war criminals he interviewed,
Kelly Housing Trust, which
pictures of giant plastic penguins until January 10.
including concentration camp
catered for families with children
with coiffured flaxen hair. He waddled down to the
commandants and Hitler’s deputy,
who were ineligible for married
Even better if there’s a couple of destroyer’s home at Portsmouth to
Hermann Göring, the head of the
quarters, later adding the job of
matelots involved… help launch the Go Penguins arts
Luftwaffe.
secretary and treasurer of the
The matelots are Logs(Pers) festival aboard the ship.
Capt Brown has flown 487
HMS Nelson Welfare Fund.
James Gaskell and LLogs(Pers) Around 150 penguins are being
different aircraft types in his long
On retirement at 65 he took
Leanne Ainscough, both serving painted and decorated by schools
career – not including variants,
over as secretary and treasurer of
aboard HMS Liverpool. in Liverpool, Wirral and environs.
so that the Spitfire and Seafire
the RN Sailing Centre at Whale
And the giant plastic penguin? Once painted, they’ll adorn open
only count as one entry in the
Island, and ended in a similar post
That’s Patrick, the mascot of a spaces, town centres, public
logbook.
with the HMS Excellent Marina
public arts festival which opened buildings and the like.
They range from gliders
Fund.
to airliners, flying boats to
helicopters.
He made more than 2,400 deck
landings, including the first jet,
a de Havilland Sea Vampire on
HMS Ocean in 1945.
Airborn Jacob revisits 771
JACOB Burns travelled to RNAS Culdrose to
say a special thank you to some of the search and
rescue crew of 771 Naval Air Squadron.
Because Jacob was born in one of 771’s Sea
King helicopters during an emergency flight from
the Isles of Scilly to the Royal Cornwall Hospital
in August 2001, when his mother Nikki could not
wait any longer.
The pilot, Lt Cdr Martin Lanni, one of the
aircrewmen, PO Darren Hall, and paramedic
Dave Pascoe greeted Jacob and Nikki and
reminisced about the flight, which attracted plenty
of publicity at the time.
Jacob also got to sit at the controls of the very
aircraft in which he was born.
During the flight eight years ago, Lt Cdr Lanni
transmitted a rare radio message, informing air
traffic control that the number of passengers had
just increased by one.
Jacob still lives at St Agnes, on the Isles of
● Jacob Burns visited RNAS Culdrose to meet members
of 771 NAS – he was born in one of squadron’s Sea Scilly, where his mother runs a chocolate-making
Kings business.
Alpha and omega of Turbulent
PICTURED off Andros Island
in 1985 following a global
deployment, a young POSA, Derek
Pallister (left) stands proud next to
the fin of HMS Turbulent.
Derek had been with the boat
from build in 1984, and continued
to serve until achieving the rate
of CPO, finally retiring from the
Royal Navy after 23 years service.
At that point he had no idea
that his son Nathan (right, pictured
almost 25 years later) would join
Turbulent in 2002 as an AB.
Nathan, now a Leading Seaman,
has participated in a varied array
of deployments over the past
seven years.
And more importantly, the
Pallister family will have seen
Turbulent from build to her
planned decommissioning in
2012.
Despite disagreements over
branch supremacy, both men take
great pride in being associated
with HMS Turbulent.
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